I came so close, but I missed a golden opportunity. Billie Jean King, one of my long- time tennis idols, was a speaker at a convention I attended. At the end of her presentation, she pulled out her racquet and hit a bucket-full of autographed tennis balls into the audience. Everyone had remained standing after giving her a standing ovation and watched with anticipation to see where her next shot would land.

My seat was quite a distance from the stage, and I felt it would literally be a long shot for one to reach me. I had a notebook and pen tucked under one arm, so when a ball came straight to me, I only had one hand free to catch it. Even at that distance, the ball had some pace on it, and all I managed to do was block it. The ball bounced off my hand, and a woman several rows in front of me, who had both hands free, became the lucky recipient. As disappointed as I was, I wryly chuckled to myself about the message to focus on one thing at a time being driven home in such a clear way.

Although many of us (myself included) pride ourselves on our multi-tasking abilities, we are kidding ourselves when we think we can give full attention to more than one thing at a time. A recent news special cited the terrible Union Pacific/Metrolink train collision of 2008 as an instance of multi-tasking with deadly consequences. Twenty-five deaths resulted from this accident, which was attributed to the driver texting while driving and failing to notice a signal to switch tracks because of an oncoming train.

Driving a car while texting, using a hand-held cell phone, or punching a new destination into the GPS can be equally dangerous. Some U.S. states have banned texting and using cell phones (here in MA this is limited to teen drivers), but ultimately it comes down to self-determination.

When we think we are multi-tasking, we are actually zig-zagging — shifting our attention back and forth between multiple activities. This is really not the most efficient or effective way to get things done. Full engagement produces the best and speediest results.

Productivity experts have found that depending on the complexity of the task and other variables, it can take 4-15 minutes to recover and refocus after an interruption. Some interruptions can be easily managed by using a “do not disturb” sign, turning off the ringer on your phone or the chime that alerts you to an incoming email or text, or escaping to a conference room or library for work that require intense concentration. Others may require changing others’ expectations of your response, and setting and managing your boundaries around them.

For example, a number of my clients discipline themselves to check and answer email only one to three times during the workday. A fellow coaching colleague uses an email autoresponder to inform people that she is taking her own coaching advice and limiting her relationship with email. She shares the two days a week that she responds to email and requests that people call her or her assistant if they require a more immediate response.

Here are some questions to consider about your own level of engagement with what’s important to you:

• Where do you attempt to do too much at once?
• What could you do to become more present?
• What might you win by choosing to be fully engaged?
• When the ball comes to you, you’ll have a much better chance of catching it when you give your full attention to the game.

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Grace has a great article.  What are you focusing on in your life?  Many times people say one thing is important when in reality they are focusing on many others.  I talk about distractions in my book – Get Er Done:  The Green Beret Guide to Productivity.  We went as far as to isolate A-teams from outside distractions during mission planning.   You are not going to be able to isolate yourself, but you can take steps to understand what is important to you and spend more time on that.

Are you ready to get more clients? Better clients? Higher-paying clients?

My GET CLIENTS NOW! provides you with a road-tested marketing system, and a trained coach to help you succeed. Break through barriers to effective marketing, and learn to create an endless stream of clients by doing 10 simple things per day! Contact me to get started now! Make this the year you solve your marketing problems and build a thriving business.  Find out more.

Photo – Flickr:Marc Di Luzio

That’s baseball, and it’s my game.  Y’ know, you take your worries to the game, and you leave ‘em there.  You yell like crazy for your guys.  It’s good for your lungs, gives you a lift, and nobody calls the cops.  Pretty girls, lots of ‘em.  ~Humphrey Bogart

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

I love baseball.  The strategy, the explosive power the players have to have all make it a great watch for me.  I love the ballparks.  I have learned a lot of great lessons from baseball. The one I was thinking about today was that baseball has a long season.  Too many times we get impatient or think that every time has to be perfect.  It doesn’t.

Each at bat, each game is like an event in life.  I can almost guarantee that you aren’t going to be successful in absolute everything you do. There will be lost games or poor at bats.  The key is to give it your all.  I talk more about this in the video.  Check it out and like it for me.

As in baseball, it is really useful to have a coach in your corner.  A coach keeps you on track, keeping you swinging for the fences while reminding how to improve your approach at the plate.  Check out my coaching page to see how you might be able to work with me.

Mike

BTW I am running a Father’s Day special on Get Er Done: The Green Beret Guide to Productivity.  Limited time 25% reduction on the price of a signed book – details here.

Photo – Flickr:Paul Hadsall

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

In the immortal words of one of the greatest philosophers of our generation:

Do or do not: There is no try.

–Yoda

Do you find yourself not getting done what you say you want for yourself? Are your excuses outnumbering your successes? You might have an excuse problem. Excuses can get in the way of your productivity.   Check out my video on how to think about excuses.

Tired of not doing what you say you are going to do?  Tired of not having what you say you want for yourself, your  business?  Work with Mike to start Getting Er Done.

If you let the voices in your head – what esteemed writing teacher Natalie Goldberg calls your monkey mind – take over, you will have a very clean kitchen floor, but not much else to show for your work day. Distractions are everywhere, and you must guard against their infiltrating presence as firmly as you would guard against a thief in your home.

From email to laundry to researching your dog’s itchy ear on petcare.com, the tasks that pull us away from our goals aren’t inherently bad – and that’s the problem. They seem like good, productive activities, something any fine upstanding home- or pet-owner would do. But there’s only one problem: They aren’t moving you closer to your goal. Instead, they’re taking you farther away.

If you want to make big progress, you have to cut the distractions – no matter how worthwhile they seem. Here’s how to keep your eyes on your prize and your seat in your desk chair (or wherever it belongs):

1. Make a list – and stick to it. The to-do list is like marching orders from your general. Make it and stick to it. You can rearrange the spice cabinet or de-tick Fluffy after you’ve finished your daily goals.

2. Do the tough stuff first. Get the hardest (and usually most value-packed) tasks out of the way early in the day. That way you won’t be distracted by the minutiae of daily life that seem to breed and multiply with each passing hour.

3. Give yourself regular breaks. Sometimes, some of that “life” stuff has to be taken care of. Give yourself regular mini-breaks of 10 minutes a few times a day to take care of calls to the vet, kitchen floors, etc. But set a timer and drop what you’re doing when your 10 minutes are up.

4. Keep a list of short tasks.One of the reasons we get pulled off track is that we come to a standstill. We’ve completed a big task and have yet to start the next round, or we’re waiting to hear back from someone before we can proceed. These natural lulls are common places for our monkey mind to sneak in. Instead of allowing your imagination free rein, have a ready list of activities related to your goal that take less than 15 minutes. Pull out the list and knock something off instead of getting pulled away.

Be ruthless about banning any distractions from your life. Each minute you reclaim is like a huge stepping stone towards your goals.

Photo -  Flickr:underminingme

In the inspirational movie, “Invincible,” walk-on Philadelphia Eagles player VincePapale keeps a heart-cutting note from his ex-wife in his locker. He regularly takes it out and reviews it – not to beat himself up, but to remind himself in a very visceral, emotional way why he must succeed.

While I don’t necessarily recommend that you encourage your friends and family members to write you letters, telling you what a loser you are, there is something to be said for negative motivation.

Equally inspiring, however (and somewhat easier on the ego) is positive motivation. Knowing you want to send your kids to private school, look great at your high school reunion, or send your parents on an all-expenses-paid, first-class trip around the world can all keep you focused and moving forward.

Here are some ways to keep your goals in front of you:

• Create a vision board. Cut photos, words, and other images from magazines and glue them, collage-style, on a piece of posterboard. Hang it somewhere you can see frequently. (Hint: You can do the same thing digitally by creating an electronic vision board and using it for your desktop wallpaper.)  Here is a good source for a digital dream board – Genesis Dream Board.

• Write it big. Write your goal on a large piece of paper, or on the whiteboard in your office. Keep it in front of yourself constantly.

• Write it everywhere. Put post-it notes on your car’s dashboard, on your bathroom mirror, on your checkbook, in your day planner or calendar. The constant visual reminder will keep you focused.

• Go audio. Record your goals on a digital voice recorder and play it back, or read it out loud each morning and evening.

• Make it vivid. Like Papale’s note, make your reminders emotion-laden. Picture your kids in their school uniforms. See your parents on their trip. Feel how your body will be lighter and more healthy. Post a photo of the Eiffel Tower on your bulletin board. The more completely you can view your future, the easier it will be to latch onto it and use it as a guiding light.

One of the keys here is experimentation. If you’ve always tried positive motivation, maybe it’s time to change things up and brandish the stick instead of the carrot. You may even want to review your “patterns of success”  for keys to your personal motivation recipe.

How do you motivate yourself?

Why so frequently? After all, you could do this once a week or month, or even once a quarter. Well, you should review your progress at different time frames, but there are several reasons to review your activity daily:

1. Because you’re looking for a big breakthrough. And if you wait too long between assessments, you can find you’ve let weeks or even months go by when you could have been making consistent, positive movement towards your goals.

2. Because it’s easier to correct a minor slip-up. An inch off-target now becomes a mile or more when extrapolated over time. Make the fix now and you won’t have to deal with the big problems later.

3. Because it’s less intimidating. Sitting down for an hour or two to review a month’s worth of activity can be downright off-putting, but taking five minutes at the end of the day can become a relaxing bedtime ritual.

4. Because your actions are fresh in your mind. You’ll forget lots of details if you wait too long to go over your schedule and activities. It’s hard enough at the end of the day; don’t wait a week or more.

Here’s what you should ask yourself at the end of the day:

• What did I do today that I was proud of?

• What one item on my to-do list made the most difference in the achievement of my goal?

• What one item on my to-do list is left over, but I should have done it?

• What took longer than I anticipated?

• What took less time than I anticipated?

• What did I enjoy doing the most?

You can easily go through these questions in five to ten minutes. You might even consider writing the answers down; it will take a bit longer, but having a longitudinal view of your answers can be invaluable to figuring out where you’re wasting time, what your highest-value activities are, and what you can change.

You might find that just by paying attention to what’s going on in your life, and where you’re spending your time, you will naturally make adjustments that put your schedule more in line with your goals.

Photo – Flickr:The Comsumerist

I recommend mining your own past for success stories because not everyone works in the same manner. You may read a book about adopting a low-carb diet and loses 20 lbs. In two weeks. Wonderful! But right next to it on the bookstore shelf is a high-carb, low-fat diet that promises the same thing. And right next to that is the Zone diet, which is next to the Raw Foods Diet, which is next to… well, you get the picture.

Not everyone’s body is the same. Not everyone’s brain is the same. Nor is your motivation, history, goals, or personality. That’s why looking at your own history will be a huge clue as to how you can replicate your own patterns of success.

Here’s what to ask yourself:

• When did I set this goal? Did I consciously set it, or was it an unconscious goal?

• How analytical was I in charting out my path?

• What kinds of obstacles and challenges arose, and how did I handle them?

• Who helped me along the way? What specifically did they do to assist me? (Concrete skills, advice, sounding board, cheerleading…?)

• Was I accountable to someone along the way? Who and how?

• Did I track my progress? How?

• If I were going to give someone else advice about how I achieved Goal X, what would I say?

• If I were to go after this goal again, the one thing that I would do differently to speed up my progress would be…?

Repeat this series of questions with several different goals – and maybe even some goals you didn’t achieve – to look for patterns. You may discover you work best with an accountability partner, and when you tracked your progress in a visual manner. These are your patterns you can easily adapt and replicate for just about any goal you’re striving for.

We can overlook our own stories when trying to learn how to succeed. That’s a mistake. Often, the best indicators of future success are right under our own noses – and in our own histories.

Leave a comment and tell us about some of the patterns of success. I read them all.

Photo -  Flickr:yourdoku

This is exactly the kind of bootstrap business that I talk about people starting in their spare time.  You don’t have to be an expert on anything.  I am willing to bet you do know more about at least one subject than many other people.  This could be the basis for an Amazon book.  It is extremely gratifying to have your own Amazon Author’s Page.

I am going to be publishing some more books on Kindle soon.  Once you know what you are doing it is super simple.  If you are interested in learning more about Kindle publishing, contact me on my contact page. 

You say, “I hired a new accountant.” He says, “Are you really ready to invest in that?”

You say, “I’m joining 24-Hour Fitness.” He says, “Bally’s is running a special this week.”

And if you were to take his advice and go to the mall, fire your accountant, or head over to Bally’s, he’d have problems with that, too. That’s because his input isn’t a matter of helpful suggestions; it’s only designed to make you question your own choices.

If you had a friend who constantly questioned every move you made like this, you’d probably knock him in the teeth.

If this behavior is so unacceptable in our friendships, why do we do it to ourselves? We choose – and then we immediately revisit that decision over and over again. Here’s the problem: Sometimes there are no “right” decisions. There are only choices we make and live with.

That’s why to take yourself to the next level, you need to let go of doubt. Accept that you’re working with imperfect knowledge and that you’re a smart cookie and that you will indeed make some mistakes along the way. But tell yourself that whatever happens, you can handle it.

If you pay $5 too much for reading glasses, you can live with that.

If you hire an accountant and discover you’re really not ready, you can let him go.

If you join the “wrong” gym, you can always switch.

Often we think that we are at the whim of circumstance and we can’t control the outcome. Not so! If you chose to buy a Toyota instead of a Honda, YOU get to decide whether that was a successful outcome. Does it get you from Point A to Point B? Does it get the required gas mileage? Is it a safe ride? (By the way, these are probably all items you considered before you made your purchase!) If the answer is “Yes,” then congratulations! You made a successful purchase!

The situation with your business may be a little different. The “success” criteria are not as clear-cut, but your influence on the outcome is no less significant. You can hustle, work extra hours if need be, commit to working things out, or even end up selling the business and thanking the benevolent heavens for giving you the opportunity to learn some lessons along the way.

Commit to doing whatever it takes to ensure your choice was a good one. And don’t doubt your own ability to make it so.

What are you committing to in your life? Leave a comment I read them all.

Photo -  Flick:presta

Yes, these are seemingly simple decisions that you may think don’t belong in a report on how to change your life. But when it comes down to it, the decision to quit your job, start a business, lose 100 lbs., move to Idaho and build a log cabin, are no different physiologically speaking than the decision to go to McDonalds instead of Wendys.

What is different is the amount of strife and angst we place upon ourselves.

And one major source of that angst is when we choose to assume the outcome of our decisions will be bad instead of good, and revisiting our decisions over and over again in the hopes that things will become more clear the second (or third, or fiftieth) time around.

You’ve done this before: You make an informed decision. You look at all sides of the matter. Maybe you even make a “Franklin List” where you list all the pros and cons. You consult a friend or an expert or two. Then you decide.

And you immediately second-guess yourself. You assume you made the wrong decision. You wonder, “What if…?” You may even try to change the original decision, whether it is returning a new car, second-guessing your business decisions, or just wondering if dinner would have been better at Fridays.

Then you put yourself right back to square one – agonizing over that decision again. Not only are you right where you’ve started, you’ve also managed to kick yourself in the self-confidence and waste some time, too. And it’s not like you’ve gotten some great information that would’ve affected your decision; you’re right where you were, with the same information you had before, struggling with the same decision you’ve already made once.

Here’s what to do instead: Go through the same careful process of decision-making, then let it go. Tell yourself you’re stuck with it. Assume you made the right decision instead of the wrong one. Move forward, move upward, move onward.

Sure, you can revisit the past, wondering if your decisions could have been better or the outcome could have been different. It’s up to you. But no going backward. It only wastes time.

Photo -  Flickr:the|G|